How can we work with cultural minorities?

1. Melel Xojobal (San Cristóbal de las Casas, México) works with Mayan children, who are generally reluctant to accept any kind of institutional assistance. In order to overcome this resistance, street educators are taught a Mayan language by the children themselves. This naturally makes the children very proud of themselves and serves to alter the traditional power imbalance between mestizos and indigenous people. In their community kindergartens, Mayan women maintain such traditions such as carrying their children on their backs and wearing their traditional dress. The administration of this institution is also based upon Mayan leadership models. Shine-a-light is working to spread the ideas of Melel Xojobal through CD-ROMs.
   Contact Patricia Figueroa <nichkok@sancristobal.com.mx>
   
   
2. Taller de Vida (Bogotá, Colombia) trains young refugee children in leadership skills through cultural programmes and teaching research skills. Because young Afro-Colombians feel rootless in the white and formal city of Bogotá, Taller de Vida offers programmes in theatre, music, photography and video as ways of instilling cultural pride in these children.
   Contact Haidy Duque, taller@colnodo.apc.org.
   
   
3. Proyecto Axé (Salvador, Brasil) uses afro-brasilian culture to work with black street children. In order to give the children pride in their culture and an alternative to life on the streets, the educators offer courses in capoeira (an afro-brasilian martial art), drumming, African dance and African art.
   Contact Cesare de Florio la Rocca <projetoaxe@uol.com.br>
   
   
4. CEDEP (Florianópolis, Brasil) through an interchange of correspondence between middle-class Italian children and poor, black, and immigrant Brasilian children aims to give the children pride in their own culture and also to keep them off the streets. Through sharing their experiences with other children, these children become aware of the positive sides of their own culture and environment -- samba, football, flying kites and the sea.
   Escriba a Miguel, <cedep@portadigital.com.br>
   
   
5. MAMA (Guadalajara, México) has two schools -- one for indigenous children and the other for mestizos. According to their experience, indigenous children are better at mathematics and mestizos at Spanish grammar.
   Contact Alfredo Castellanos, alca10@hotmail.com